Christmas Day!!!

Santa came and it was wonderful!!  The boys could hardly believe their haul!

Of course the jump house was the hit.  I've never seen parents have to ask their kids to open more presents, but they didn't want to be pulled away from their castle.

They love that thing!

Finally they realized that there were other presents under the tree and in their stockings.

It was definitely an exciting morning.

Even Jensley loved the presents!

Mommy found some pretty awesome things in her stocking, and Rock was happy to take the credit.

Eventually Jensley realized that the fire was going and that demanded her immediate attention.

Rock's primary teacher got him a framed picture of Christ.  Thank you!

The boy got some cool things, like a football uniform,

a garbage truck,

batman pamamas,

poptarts,

Superman shirts that were hand sewn by Mama Rae,

and lots of other fun stuff.

Rock received a SWAT outfit and spent the rest of the day putting people in handcuffs.

Ryker loves his GeoTrax mater car.

Jensley loved seeing uncle KC before he left for Utah.

Jensley received a girl Rufus.

And DeAndra received a few paintings of Christ to hang in our house.

Overall it was a pretty awesome Christmas!!

Christmas Eve!!

The excitement around here is reaching an all-time high.  The boys have been burning off their nerves by building wicked sweet train tracks. 

 There are already good boys, but there is something about holding Santa's visit over their head that has made them especially compliant. 

 Even so Jens isn't so sure about them.

 But they are some good boys.  Even dirty faced and all.

 So, another thing that we've been working on is helping Ryker poop in the fecal receptor and not his britches.  Well, last night he finally did it!  He was super duper excited and demanded to open an early present as celebration (which may have been the promise that someone made despite DeA's protests).

 When Jensley is protected she is a little more accepting of her brothers...

 Lil' Huddy didn't get to sit on Santa's lap so Lindsea found a stand in:

He even made a homemade sled.

 His reindeer wasn't very helpful.

 But she was very, very cute.

 Ryker.

 She's happy because she's hiding behind the couch.

 DeA claims that she is doing Gangman style, but I told her that if that's true Santa is skipping our house.

 Santa Rock disappeared and Woody Rock took his place. 

 ANOTHER DUECE IN THE TOILET!!

 We spent Christmas Eve at Mama Rae's and Papa Dale's house.  We watched Good Tidings of Great Joy and Mom read a Christmas story about a train.  Santa Rock likes trains.

 Yes, we had open flames with Rock, Ryker and Huddy hanging around.  No one died so it worked out just fine.

 Ryker limped to the end and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

 The boys fell asleep pretty quick and we could play with their toys!

 Jens loved it, kind of.

 Merry Christmas Eve!!

Shattering Eggs

Look what Rock can do!

And look what Papa Dale can do!

Jensley

It's not that we love Jensley more than the other kids, it's that she seems to be in more pictures than the other kids.  Part of that is that the boys move too fast for pictures, and part of that is because she looks stinking adorable in her reindeer antlers.

 I know that some of these are blurry, but you can still see her cuteness.

 After church on Sunday I made a fire with the boys' help.  Jensley crawls right over with a big smile on her face to watch the flames. 

 Her arm is moving super duper fast because she is super duper excited.

 Those are little tears under her eyes.  She didn't want to sleep, but finally she did.  That's our sweet little Jens Benz.

Christmas Card Post

Maybe next year we will do real cards, but until then here is this year's family Christmas picture.

Merry Christmas!!

Fire and Stuff

The kids are fascinated by fires.  They love making them, striking the 'mattress', throwing wood and paper on the fire and spreading the ash all over the living room.

Lil' Jens loves to join right in with the fun and ash.

One the fire gets going she stands and watches it like she's hypnotized.

  "So, um, I noticed you haven't used any gasoline yet.  You, uh, going to soon?  I think you should."

 I woke up this morning to one of the saddest things I have seen.  Rock told me that his face was all bloody and when I opened my eyes I saw this poor face.  He told me that he was picking at his lip (notice the crack on the bottom right lip) and it bled.  

 We got him all cleaned up and ready for school.  It was like it never happened, except for the bloody tissues in the garbage and his bloody pillow.

 Jens wasn't too sure about much of anything.  She always dreamed of seeing her brothers bleed, but that was after she landed an uppercut to get them to stop 'loving' her.